Distributed I/O System Upgraded

November 18th, 2005

The PowerDNA cube now comes with a 400-MHz PowerPC processor and 128 Mbytes of 266-MHz double-data-rate random-access memory. The cube also accepts a secure-digital (SD) card for storing up to 4 Gbytes of data.

PowerDNA cubes are smart, compact, I/O subsystems that can connect to an Ethernet. Each cube packs a mixture of up to 144 analog or 288 digital I/O points in a compact, cubical, 4×4x4-in. or 6×4x4-in. enclosure.

The on-board PowerPC processor enables UEI to offer many software products for embedding local control in the cube. The company also offers simulation tools and an open-source real-time operating system. The availability of LAN, SD serial I/O ports simplifies integrating of the cube into embedded control systems.

The SD-Card allows the cube to operate as a stand-alone data logger and can store many hours of data—including analog, digital, CAN-bus, temperature, or strain measurements. A user can program data logging to start and stop at certain times or upon a digital trigger or signal level. When logging is complete, the user can move the SD card from the cube to a card reader to access the accumulated data from a wide range of data-analysis applications.

The $995 (US) model DNA-PPC-5 ($1395 DNA-FPPC-5 for fiber optic interface), which accommodates three layers, and the $1295 (US) model DNA-PPC-8 ($1695 for DNA-FPPC-8) , which accommodates six layers, are available in December 2005. A broad range of I/O is available including analog input (+/-100V), analog output (+/-40V), digital I/O (TTL and Industrial), Strain-gage signal conditioning with sensor excitation, CAN-Bus (4 ports), serial, and counter/timers.

PowerDNA cubes come with an object-oriented software applications-programming interface for Windows that supports many different programming languages and environments. A Linux based API is also available at no charge.

United Electronics Industries, 800-829-4632, http://www.ueidaq.com/.

Entry Filed under: Test Equipment